David Cassidy on the Web
Beaulieu information board describes visit by David Cassidy
November 11, 2022
By Chris Yandell
www.dailyecho.co.uk
David Cassidy is given a chauffeur-driven ride by Belinda, Lady Montagu, in 1973. Picture: National Motor Museum (Image: National Motor Museum)
HE WAS the American pop idol who had millions of female fans across the globe.
David Cassidy was an actor and singer-songwriter who shot to fame after appearing in a musical sitcom called The Partridge Family in the early 1970s.
The series was phenomenally successful, but fame started to take its toll on the show's young star, whose public appearances sparked mass hysteria.
Now the Beaulieu Estate has unveiled a riverside information board commemorating a secret visit he made to the area almost 50 years ago.
David Cassidy takes tea with Belinda, Lady Montagu, at Palace House, Beaulieu, in 1973.
Cassidy was at the height of his fame when he stayed with Lord and Lady Montagu at their ancestral home, Palace House, in 1973.
He took tea with Lady Montagu and even went fishing with her while dressed in a full-length fur coat.
The information board says Cassidy, who was on a UK tour, stayed in the New Forest "to escape the clamour of adoring fans".
The current Lord Montagu, whose father died in 2015, agreed to install it after being approached by Sharron Liddle, who runs a Facebook group called The David Cassidy Legacy Group of Great Britain.
The board features photographs of Cassidy during his stay at Beaulieu, plus a newspaper cartoon showing him with his hosts.
The new information board beside the Beaulieu River, where David Cassidy went fishing. Picture: David Cassidy Legacy Group (Image: David Cassidy Legacy Group)
The new information board beside the Beaulieu River, where David Cassidy went fishing. Picture: David Cassidy Legacy Group
Another Facebook page says Cassidy had fond memories of staying at an English stately home.
It quotes the butler, Trevor Barnfield, as saying: "David had to be kept pretty secret because he had a really big following among young girls and there was a worry that he would be mobbed."
But news of his presence in the village inevitably leaked out.
An American reporter covering the tour wrote: "The teeny-boppers have crawled through the undergrowth to give some proper English butlers a few anxious moments."
After launching his solo musical career Cassidy was briefly the highest-paid entertainer in the world.
But the dangers associated with what the media dubbed "Cassidymania" were laid bare in 1974, when nearly 800 people were injured in a crush at London's White City Stadium.
Cassidy, one of countless celebrities to visit Beaulieu, died aged 67 in 2017 after being taken to hospital with liver and kidney failure.
